Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes: Or, Google is Making Me Pull My Hair Out!

Do I sound like I'm contradicting myself yet? Maybe so...but it's all because Google keeps changing up stuff, and today, it's really driving me batty!

I wrote back in May about Google being sort of "big brother"-ish with personalized searches. You can read my thoughts on why I see this as a problem (portraying Google as the devil), and you can also read about an instance where Google search tools really worked for me (portraying Google as an angel).

Then, just yesterday, I wrote about Google as a company, trying to compete with big contenders such as Facebook and Apple (others were mentioned in the article referenced in my post).

But today is a whole new story. Recently, Google has been making quite a few facelift changes, all right around the time of the Google Plus roll out. The changes seemed to work (except for my integrated g-mail extension not playing nice with the new calendar), but today brought with it the revelation of a few changes that I am not too thrilled about.

For my information literacy course that I teach, there is an entire week of brainstorming topics with concept maps (partially Google-ified) and an entire week of web searching (heavily Google-ified).

The tools that I point out to students each quarter include:
* Google Books
* Google Scholar
* Google News
* Advanced Search Options
* Any Time Date Ranges
* Timeline
* Related Searches
* Realtime

And my beloved Google Wonder Wheel. Students LOVE (I mean... L.O.V.E.) this tool! It's one thing to take them to the Credo Reference Concept Map, but it's an entirely different matter to take them to a tool that allows them to learn something new within a system they are already used to using.
So, you can imagine my reaction when I learned that the Google Wonder Wheel is gone! Yep...that's right - gone . vamoose . nadda [enter very sad face and utter dissatisfaction here].




When we Google now, all we get are the options to the right:
* Google Books
* Google Scholar
* Google News
And in the More Search Tools area,
* Related Searches
* Timeline
* Reading Level (not sure this is useful for my needs)

And folks... that's it! No more Google Wonder Wheel... no more Realtime... It's really quite sad, and it seems like really useful tools are being cut without any warning!

So, with thanks to Search Engine Land, this seems to be the progression that Google has taken:

• Google Begins Multi-Month User Experience Update
  I love this quote that states, "I imagine most people think that whatever links are listed there are the only options available." This is so very true for my students. They just don't have the skills yet that tell them to dig a little deeper! So is Google really creating a user-friendly interface for the mass population of internet users?
• Google Realtime Search Goes Missing
  This is one that I really enjoyed using for showing primary source material.
  
• As Deal with Twitter Expires, Google Realtime Search Goes Offline
  This is the update to the above posting. I like that they are trying to reinvent this option to include multiple content avenues outside of Twitter. This could be a good thing in the long run, but it's coming at a really crappy time.
• Official: The Google Wonder Wheel is Gone
  And finally, the post that makes me the most sad. I really can't say it enough - I am truly going to miss this concept mapping tool...and I'm not sure what alternative I will use.
  

I'm sure there are more changes coming down the pike, but the one's referenced here are those that will impact me right now. I have 4 days to find an alternative to the Google Wonder Wheel and 2 weeks to revamp my web searching lesson plan. If you have ideas...please share them (and in reality, I could have used the time it took me to write this post searching for alternatives)!

I would also like to know how the Google changes are affecting you and your work, so don't be shy...

Google Rules the World

I ran across an article earlier today titled Google’s Six-Front War, written by guest contributor Semil Shah of TechCrunch. The article focuses on 6 main components of the Google company, and the war within to "rule" the technology and information front.

For quite some time I have been a solid fan of Google...from Gmail, Google Reader, and Google Calendar to search options, and my Droid phone, Google has been a steady part of my everyday life in terms of communication, productivity, and basic research. On the flip side of this coin, I am also an avid apple consumer. For roughly 14 years now, I have owned and worked solely on a Mac, except for when at work, and I can honestly say, I will never ever personally own a PC computer. Mac's work for me and from experience, they are stable machines (I had one for 10 straight years and it continued to work even through to the point of upgrading). I'm getting a bit sidetracked, but I say all of this because many people have asked me why I didn't purchase an iPhone. The reality is that my life heavily revolves around Google, and for syncing purposes, the Droid was an obvious choice.

Enough about my personal preferences though... here are a few highlights from the article that I find particularly interesting:

Facebook
Throughout much of the article, Facebook is brought into play as a competitor of Google. There is talk of Facebook potentially creating or being interested in a social browser and a mobile device. I know Facebook is huge, but can it *really* compete with Google in terms of a mobile device? Maybe so... and we're living in interesting times to see this war of the top dogs play out.

The Google Search
This is how Google made a name for itself, but this article proposes that even the search aspect of Google is being challenged. I haven't taken it that far in my head yet, but to some degree, maybe Mr. Shah is right. People are gathering information in very different ways these days. They are gaining their information/news/weather/events from social media avenues, and there is a possibility that the Google Search that once was is waning. Mr. Shah puts it this way: "On desktops and laptops, people will continue to use a variety of browsers, though they end up spending a lot of time on Facebook, which scares Google because of the trend of people moving slowly from search to discovery." I love that phrase - search to discovery. The phrase is at the heart of what is being taught in my information literacy course. Students need to know how to properly search for credible information, but there is definitely a discovery component that comes into play during our evaluation week. With information coming at us at exponential speeds and volumes, what we are discovering must be evaluated for credibility and authority.

So, for now, I still believe Google is the forerunner (at least for me) in terms of digital information and information seeking behaviors...but will it continue to rule the world? Interesting stuff!

The Beginning of What Could Be the End: Harper Collins & OverDrive - The E-Book Debacle

The end of the beginning...the beginning of the end...that's how the recent e-book debacle surrounding Harper Collins and OverDrive makes me feel. In recent years, libraries have been making the necessary push to remain on the forefront of technology, which includes different media and file types for resources. Now, the outrageous decision made by Harper Collins to mandate bogus e-book terms has the potential to move libraries 5 steps back...wondering how they will be able to afford the convenience of new technology formats for patrons. [more explanation to come]

Enter year 2011, and the overwhelming amount of e-readers that were purchased for Christmas... myself being one of the people entering the digital book age! My husband purchased a Nook for me. I had been toying with the idea for a really long time, but I always thought I would stay true to the print world moreso than with an e-book; but I have come to absolutely love (LOVE) my Nook! I have been reading through the Millenium Series , and have enjoyed checking out e-books through my local library using their OverDrive vendor service.

Imagine my horror when I open my laptop on Friday afternoon to see a stream of twitter posts surrounding an e-book fiasco (hashtag #hcod)! The gist of the hubbub is this:

Harper Collins is wanting to mandate all NEWLY PURCHASED e-books be put on a 26 person/check out/seat limit. TWENTY SIX! This would mean that libraries would be forced to re-purchase that title after 26 uses. With Overdrive being the vendor in this picture, it seems they are being forced to comply and recently sent out an e-mail to all customers of their subscriptions service stating the new change.

So far, the debacle seems to be hitting closer to the public library sector...but I can't help but wonder what other publishers will see this as an opportunity to jump on the bandwagon too...and what other vendors?!

I have a few observations of my own (not anything new really) from reading the twitter stream:

1. What happens if there are technical issues and a Librarian has to download the e-book for troubleshooting purposes. This uses a checkout of the coveted 26 that are allowed.

2. How does this affect my current Library with all of the E-books we are providing? Currently we own 10,000 e-books...and that number continues to increase! The campus library settings remain VERY small (more like a media center), so we have utilized the digital age to be able to provide resources online rather than tangible print items. What does this mean for us??

With the last question hanging heavy on my thoughts all weekend, I decided to send out an e-mail to our team of Librarians to generate some discussion. A few responses so far include:

**This could be compared to a situation where a print copy of a book sees wear and tear and must be replaced after time. --My thoughts

**Reading a bit further into the situation, Harper Collins is also mandating that libraries reveal patron information that surround geographical location in order to make double sure that people outside of the coverage area don't have access to the materials. This could potentially put a damper on our international pursuits where I work --A.C.

**Another main issue surrounding this debate is that "libraries will not "own" the digital materials in the same way they own physical items." Also, "from a collection development and cataloging stand point, how annoying would it be to catalog an ebook, have to monitor its use, and then be sure to either re-purchase or delete the bib record after 26 uses? As though librarians don't have enough to do already.... And what about the student who uses a book once, and then needs to refer to it again later in the quarter? Hopefully that title isn't a popular one, cause if it is, it might have been erased by the publisher!" --E.M.

NEW Responses...
**My e-mail was read during intermission of Faust, "just after Faust had signed his soul away to the devil after seeing the visage of lovely Marguerite!" ..."Right now we pay much more to own a copy in perpetuity, [and in the end,] you [may] pay extra for unlimited seats and unlimited use. Few of our copies will ever hit 26 checkouts and therefore we pay too much just in case a title is popular. I'd rather pay more once a copy does become a hit." ... "Our loaning models differ considerably from the public libraries." --M.S.

I will be adding more to this post as the conversation grows between my colleagues.
Finally, if you would like to read more about this very important issue and make your own conclusions, feel free to peruse the following posts:
Library Journal
Bobbi Newman: Librarian By Day
David Lee King
A Very Interesting Solution That Could Possibly Work